We all know NW is worse now because it ignores headshots, but this is about bodyshots! Since Nanoweave was changed to a percentage based resistance, it will benefit Infiltrators much less than before, where it gave a straight health-boost. Now infiltrators with NW5, which grants 20% resistance, have 1125 (900/0.8) effective hitpoints. Before PU02 they had 1150 hitpoints with NW5. This maybe doesn't look like much, but the old NW5 which is pretty expensive for 1000 certs, still was worthwhile over NW4, because it protected against one extra bullet from 125 and 143 damage type weapons, which are some of the most common, especially in CQC (most SMGs, most Carbines, most ARs and quite a few LMGs). The same goes for NW 3 & 4 which now grant less effective hitpoints than before, even on other classes! We will now go through the numbers. As a sample weapon i will use the Trac-5 which has a damage of 143@10m and 125@60m without SPA. Code: EHP(old/new) Bullets-to-kill(old/new) Distance-for-extra-bullet(old/new) NW3 1050 / 1028.6 7 / 7 36.7 m / 47.8 m NW4 1100 / 1058.8 7 / 7 22.5 m / 34.2 m NW5 1150 / 1125 8 / 7 0 / 15.4 m NW 3 grants protection against one extra bullet. As we can see, the new NW 4 & 5 grant almost no extra protection for infiltrators against some of the most common weapons. Factor in that a lot of these weapons also run SPA, the distance at which you get extra protection against these weapons is even higher than 15 m. I strongly advise you infiltrators to save your 1150 certs for NW 4 & 5. There is almost no benefit to it!
ASC is where it's at because it meshes so well with hit-and-run tactics. Decloak, fire, take damage, cloak, get to cover, decloak, and your shields are up again. Without ASC5 you have to wait behind cover for four seconds longer before you can cloak with full shields again, which puts you at a higher risk if enemies are pursuing, allows you to do fewer attacks, and generally slows down your movement behind enemy lines.
